Sunrise photos

NatalieD

Hi Moose,

How can I take photos from the beach looking out into the ocean of the sunrising over the ocean including 2 to 3 foot waves? I'm also not using a tripod. How can I change the Focus Mode from AF-A to AF-S? I can't find it on my D3200.

Thanks for any help you can offer! =)

Natalie

ohyeahar

Changing the Focus Mode requires going into the Info menu. Just press the Info button and navigate using the directional pad. In fact, this is how you change most of the common settings of the camera.

For taking your shot, it may not be that easy.
If you want to capture the waves, that means you need a fast shutter to freeze the water. Otherwise, the entire ocean would appear smooth and silky.

Short focal length and small aperture is probably best.

Try your shot. It may look nice depending on the lighting. If the sky is too bright and you exposed for the sky, then the ocean may appear too dark. If you expose for the ocean, your sky might be washed out. In such instances, you’ll need to do some post processing. Bracketing multiple exposures and then blending them in Photoshop will probably give the best results.

bruto

Make sure you use the full manual for the D3200, which comes on the CD (as a PDF file), not the shortened printed version. You'll find instructions on page 51. You can choose AFS and AFC only in P,S, A and M modes.

You can access this with the "I" button (bottom left), or the menu.

As for the sunrise, I'll leave most of that for others. I've done sunsets, but no sunrises. The challenge here is flare and accurate exposure, but because my favorite lenses for this are old manual ones that neither auto focus nor meter, others can probably steer you better on how to use AF and metering to get what you're after.

If you're using the correct lens, you'll probably want aperture priority, a fairly small aperture, and exposure compensation to avoid making your foreground a silhouette. You'll wish you had a tripod.

NatalieD

Dear Ohyeahar and Bruto,

Thank you for your tips. I was able to change the AF-A to AF-S!

Yes, Ohyeahar, when I took shots of the ocean yesterday that's exactly what happened with the ocean and sand. It came out too dark. It's much easier to take these shots with a point and shoot! Trying to do it the right way is tough, but I'm not the type to give up. I was hoping to take some this morning but I overslept and it's now cold outside. I'll have another chance tomorrow. I wish there was a way to post photos on this site so we can show examples of what we shot and get advice on them. I believe your advice on using short focal length and small aperture is correct.

As for the white balance what should I put it on? I just put it on direct sunlight. Is this correct or should it be on auto?

Bruto, I am using the 18-55mm lens. It seems to do the trick. I'm only able to get sunrises over the ocean because of location. Sunsets happen on the bay and they are just as beautiful.

NatalieD

bruto

The kit zoom is not bad for this. I think it helps if you aim fairly straight at the sun. Oblique light will cause a series of iris-shaped ghost images. Of course how you play these can be variable as well. It's become a standard movie trope, for example, to use flare-induced ghost images in desert and other scenes as a sort of video shorthand for "this place is hot and sunny and dry!" Creative possibilities are there, but placement is tricky. If you must have your lens at an angle from the sun, a hood helps a great deal. For the 18-55mm you cannot use a "petal" style hood because the front rotates, but round hoods work. A hood that is suitable for a full frame 28mm or 35mm lens will work throughout the range.

I usually keep white balance on auto, but if you shoot in RAW mode you can play with white balance very easily.

You can't post photos directly on the site, but you can find free hosting sites, such as Imageshack, and post the links.

I was out in Rhode Island last week, and if I get it right, will post a quick and dirty sunset shot from Galilee. The exposure was manual as was the focus, and the lens in question (38/3.5 manual from about 1962) [ edit correction: that's a 28 not a 38! In a DX this comes to a slightly wide normal.] is rather unusual in its ability to shoot straight into a light, but you can still see a ghost image on the building to the left of the sun. It's a quickie 700 pixel scan of the original raw image and not modified, but one can see a starting point.

https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/700x465q90/673/leNsKo.jpg

ohyeahar

If you have a point and shoot camera that can get the shot, use it. Then look at the file’s EXIF data to see the exposure settings used. Use the same exposure settings on your DSLR.

Or, you can shoot it in RAW and then edit it in post. If you expose for the water, then bring down the exposure for the sky. If you expose for the sky, then bring up the exposure of the water. It may be easier to do the former.

NatalieD

Great, thank you. Love how this guy, Moose answers. Thank you for your advice! =)

bruto

You should definitely shoot in RAW if you can. For this kind of shot, you probably want "active D-lighting" on. That will open up shadows some. If you then open the RAW file in ViewNX you'll find an option for adding recovery info to shadows as well as one for bringing detail to highlights.

I might differ a bit from ohyeahar on which way to error in exposure, because if you blow the highlights out, there's little you can do to fix that later. You'll probably have to allow a little overexposure of the sun itself no matter what, but I think it's easier to open up dark areas than it is to tone down serious overexposure. You can try it both ways and halfway between, and decide what you like best.